There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.

Gide’s aphorism turns “impossible” into a psychological judgment rather than an objective fact. What looks unattainable often remains so because it is kept at the level of speculation, fear, or inherited assumptions; the moment one begins, the problem becomes concrete, divisible into steps, and therefore more tractable. The line also reflects a modernist emphasis on self-testing and experience: knowledge of one’s limits (and of the world’s resistance) comes through action, not contemplation. It is not a guarantee of success so much as a critique of premature resignation—an invitation to replace imagined barriers with the clarifying discipline of attempt.